Conference Reflections 2025

Dear <<First Name>>, here is the Australasian eResearch Newsletter.

Australasian eResearch Newsletter - Conference Reflections 2025

Message from AeRO:

Numerous photos were taken at the Conference by our photographer, Kirsten Cox; a large selection can be seen at https://779522.lightfolio.com/gallery/eresearch-australasia-2025-conference, with password “25-RESEARCH”. Note that this gallery expires on January 23, 2026. You may download and use any of these photos, but if you are publishing them (eg on a website), then proper attribution should be given.

Special thanks to our valued sponsors and exhibitors who make eRes possible – some have celebrated 10+ years as sponsors!

We encourage you to complete the feedback survey, via the link in the email sent on 23-Oct-25, to help make eRes2026 even better. Note that that is a personalised link, so the general link I included in the November eResearch Newsletter will not work properly. Note also that next year eRes2026 (the 20^th manifestation) will be held in Melbourne, utilising the MCG! (not MCC as I said in the last Newsletter!).

Alex Reid, Newsletter Editor.

Sponsors

Those of us that have been involved in organising conferences know that we cannot run an event like this without this kind of support, for which we are very grateful. Luc made a point of thanking our sponsors for making it possible to run the kind of conference we have:

I also want to shout out that several of our sponsors have been with our conference for over 5 years. DDN (16), AARNet (13), Xenon (10), AWS (9) .. we thank you and all our new and returning sponsors.

Platinum: AWS with Nvidia.
Gold: Xenon with Nvidia, and Dell with Nvidia.
Silver: IBM, Macquarie Cloud Services, and Intel.
Bronze: CDC, DDN, and NextDC.
Network Partner: AARNet.
Coffee Cart: OneTeam.
Breakfast Host: SHARON AI.
Poster Reception: OneTeam, and Lenovo.

Conference Statistics

Workshop registrations: 114; WHPC & SysAdmin registrations: 69; Countries represented: 15 (incl Aus & NZ). Total registrations: 574
States and Countries represented:

Vic: 130
Qld: 127
NSW: 103
ACT: 49
WA: 32
SA: 23
Tas: 10
NT: 2
Australia: 476
NZ: 29
United Kingdom: 10
USA: 8
Japan: 8
Singapore: 6
Canada: 3
India: 2
South Korea: 2
Italy: 1
France: 1
South Africa: 1
Netherlands: 1
Hong Kong: 1
Germany: 1

Total: 550 (discrepancy with total due to “alternate” delegates).

Luc Betbeder-Matibet (Conference Co-Chair) Reflects

eResearch this year was 574 of us in Brisbane, some of us back-to-back with International Data Week! This is just behind last year’s record of 608 and above what we expected when planning the conference.

My main reflection for this year is how much fun I had. I really did. I was in conversations with some of my favourite people from about 7:30 in the morning to about 22:30 each day. I was that good kind of exhausted by the Friday.

Overall, the feedback this year has been very encouraging from both our conference attendees and our exhibitors. It was such a pleasure seeing many of you in person and catching up.

Another highlight for me was the Women+ in HPC & HPC Systems Administrators Joint Breakfast. Research Computing was a big focus of Day 3 and what a great way to kick of a fantastic last day! We had 70 in the room for a fantastic panel and early morning session.

Join us next year in Melbourne at the MCG.

More from Luc on the Program Committee and the Keynotes

I again want to take the opportunity to thank Natasha and our Program Committee, especially Leslie, Jake and Aditi for the behinds the scenes decisions and work that just needs to happen to make a conference run smoothly. See the photo above of the program Committee.

We thank our keynote speakers. I loved how big some of the talks were in their scope and ideas. From Bonno’s wonderfully encouraging opening to landing on Mars with Paulo, to trusted data with Reyna, to Exascale in Japan with Satoshi, to Kiowa’s big amazing interview with our workforce and QUT’s big transformation with Michael and Andrew and having my brain math’s capacity exploded with Giuseppe’s Quantum/AI discoveries and Tomasz’s glimpse over the horizon to the big changes coming with Physical AI. I also loved our two big panels and thank all the organisations and panellists involved. Our conference continues to reflect the cutting-edge nature of the work we support and hearing from our experts about the need for Supercomputing and the challenges that AI brings is at the core of our everyday work.

This year we had our largest delegation from Japan and we hope to invite a representative from one of the Japanese institutions onto our Program Committee to expand our links. The deep collaboration with our colleagues in New Zealand continues to be strong and we wish them well for their conference in Auckland early next year. Nau mai ngā hua, nau mai ngā pai, kia nui kia hāwere ai

Aditi Subramanya, Partner Relations Manager at Pawsey Writes

This year’s eResearch Conference was a special one for me. It marked my first full year as AeRO Vice President, and after attending this conference for close to a decade, it was a real pleasure to experience it through a new lens. The conversations, presentations and impromptu hallway catch-ups were fantastic and genuinely thought-provoking. In fact, I loved that it could take nearly an hour just to make my way from one end of the hall to the other — a testament to the energy and generosity of this community.

Our keynotes took on a fresh shape this year. We saw outstanding examples of science, practice and innovation, with new voices and early-career researchers taking the stage alongside established leaders. It brought a sense of renewal and reminded us how broad and vibrant the digital research ecosystem has become.

What stood out most was the passion for the digital infrastructure and services we collectively provide. Bringing together different service providers who are often solving similar challenges in parallel — and watching ideas spark, align and evolve — is one of the reasons I keep returning to this conference. It’s also what motivated me to become more involved in AeRO.

Supporting groups like Women in HPC+ and the Australian Systems Administrators was a real highlight because it reinforced the importance of creating pathways for the next generation of researchers and technical professionals. The momentum behind equity and representation is clearly growing — and it strengthens the whole sector. People remain our greatest strength, and this year felt like a real affirmation of that.

Finally, a huge thank you to our Program Committee, Organising Committee and sub-committees, as well as the Conference Design team. Their commitment, creativity and hard work underpin the success of this event every year. None of this would be possible without the exceptional enthusiasm and support of our broader community.

I’m already looking forward to next year!

A Report from the WHPC Chapter

The eResearch Australasia conference is always a re-energising event for our Australasia Chapter of Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC+ AusNZ). It’s a chance to connect with community members face-to-face, hold space for important conversations about diversity and inclusion in our sector, and build new connections with people and organisations who are equally passionate about supporting underrepresented views in eResearch.

This year, thanks to the generous support of AeRO, we covered the cost of five members of our WHPC community to attend eRA who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to participate. This year was also our first time partnering with the HPC System Administrators community to host a breakfast panel that discussed how to support and diversity the talent pipeline. Lastly, we loved seeing one of our Chapter Organising Committee members, Kiowa Scott-Hurley, take centre stage as a Keynote Speaker and use her platform to celebrate the people behind eResearch. It was a busy and cup-filling week — we’re already looking forward to Melbourne!

Pictured above left to right: Jana Makar, Daisy Li, Claire Herne, Amanda Parker, Malvika Kharbanda, Aditi Subramanya.

If anyone wants to stay connected with us between now and then, check out our channels here: www.tinyurl.com/whpcaunz.

Claire Herne, Bioinformatician at QCIF Writes

On the Monday, my colleague Daisy Li and I attended the Fundamentals of Accelerated Computing with CUDA Python workshop with Dr Johan Barthélemy from NVIDIA. I wish I had done this workshop before my last year of uni! It was a fantastic introduction to how GPUs can manage memory.

Daisy and I are grateful recipients of the Women+ in High Performance Computing (WHPC+) Australasia bursary to attend eRA2025, supported by AeRO. Being my first year in the eResearch ecosystem, it was a highlight to meet remote collaborators and members of the community in person, and to make new connections.

Insights from AeRO’s President: Navigating Research Infrastructure Innovation

What does it mean to “fly the plane while building it”? Luc Betbeder-Matibet, President of AeRO and this year’s eResearch conference co-chair, explores this challenge in an exclusive video interview with the CAUDIT Cloud team. Luc shares candid insights into how Australia’s research infrastructure community is adapting, innovating, and collaborating through uncertainty. Discover how AeRO’s network of experts is shaping the future of eResearch and why community connection matters more than ever.

Watch the full interview: Flying the Plane While We're Building It here: https://www.macquariecloudservices.com/blog/flying-the-plane-while-were-building-it-aeros-community-of-research-infrastructure-experts/.

Reflections on the Co-Located Digital Research Skills Uplift Event

Digital Research Skills Uplift at the Annual ARDC Skills Summit
Bringing together expert trainers and researchers, the 2025 ARDC Digital Research Skills Summit, co-located with eResearch Australasia, fostered conversations between local and international practitioners, creating a space for sharing best practices and advancing digital research training across the research sector.
https://ardc.edu.au/article/skills-summit-wrap-up-2025/.

Reflections on IDW

The ARDC Reflects on International Data Week 2025:
The ARDC team reflects on the success of International Data Week 2025 (IDW 2025), hosted for the first time in Oceania, held in Brisbane / Meanjin. IDW was held the week before eResearch Australasia as a co-located event.
https://ardc.edu.au/article/the-ardc-reflects-on-international-data-week-2025/.

Is This the End of eResearch?

Alex Reid wrote the following about eRes2024, and he finds it still applies today, though he would add that there is a lot more evidence now of the application of eResearch tools and systems to real research. This doesn’t mean that we should become a “research” conference or organisation, there are already plenty of those. Our focus should be on continuing to advance the research effort through appropriate use of ICT.

“Having served on the Program Committee for many years, and having attended all but 1 (I think) of the eResearch-Australasia Conferences, the thing that strikes me most forcefully about eRes2024 is that there is still plenty to discuss, explain, describe, debate (as evidenced by the enthusiastic and high quality submissions made). eResearch is like an onion – you peel off one layer thinking you’re getting to the heart of the matter, only to find another layer. This doesn’t mean we’re not getting anywhere: we’ve made huge advances in our understanding and application of eResearch. We have made and will continue to make great advances in eResearch, as long as we continue to come together from time to time, to compare notes, to seek fresh ideas, to test one another, to communicate! Keep it up!!”

Contributions

This newsletter is based on contributions from members of the eResearch community, and draws on news articles and newsletters published across the sector. The Newsletter is published around the 16th of each month. Please send all contributions (max. 100 words + link + image) or pointers to any other relevant articles or newsletters to editor@aero.edu.au.
Newsletter archives are available at http://aero.edu.au/newsletters/.
Click HERE to subscribe to the eResearch Mailing List.
Thanks, Alex Reid, AeRO Newsletter Editor.

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